Clash of the Titans
by Kyle Gon Jinn
Summary: With Matt going insane with power, the toughest kids in South Park are forced to battle it out with him to defend their town. Will Matt ever return to his normal self and rescue his missing sibs?


Authors Notes  
  
Okay, not too much to note this time around. Just a word of warning that I'm not doing any "Previously on South Park," this episode, so if you don't like it, then READ THE PREVIOUS EPISODE!!! Or just go ahead and read this one. Chances are that you'll get the gist of what's happening anyway. Alrighty, legal mumbo jumbo. I don't own South Park or any of the characters, except for Matt Sutton, Nath Richardson, Augustus Gloop, and Dash McKinley, with partial credit for Snowie Vaunratten. Using any fankids without permission from their original owner/s for your own personal glory will result in hideously ugly green warts popping up all over your entire body. And you wouldn't want that, now would you? To avoid this, it is advised that one should contact the creator of the fankid in question and request for use. To aid you in this way, I'll let you know that Aimee and Dylan are the property of traP, Bonnie, Dion, Zed and Tina belong to CG (who is also the prime creator of Snowie), Amber, Lily, Kyren and Kat are possessed by KG, and Bobby and Clarissa can be claimed by Snodin. So those are the folks you wanna talk to if you're interested in putting their kids in your own fics. By doing this, you can prevent your testicles from becoming covered in huge, gross growth type things (or your breasts, if you're not of the male persuasion). And finally, for anyone that I have yet to scare off, this fic is intended to be my South Park finale. This is the one where we wrap up all the conflicts and mysteries and such. Well, for my characters, anyway. Okay, are we done now? Not quite. I've quoted the kick ass video game "Soul Reaver" several times in this fic. Fans, see if you can spot it! Okay, now I think I'm done. Good. On with the fic!  
  
CLASH OF THE TITANS  
  
It was a quiet and snowy morning in South Park, which usually meant three things for the little Colorado mountain town. First of all, the kids of Mrs. Choksondik's fourth grade class were trapped in school, instead of out skiing and skating as they longed to be. The second thing was that Kenny was quite likely to fall into his regular habit of dying today, and thus allowing South Park fans with nothing better to do to carve yet another notch on their belts (which have so many notches in them by now that they're in danger of falling apart). The third thing was a near certainty - all hell was most likely about to break loose, and result in the near destruction of South Park for the umpteenth time.  
  
**********  
  
Miss Choksondik looked over her class in disapproval, who looked back at her, much quieter than they usually would. The reason for this was that a great number of the students were absent from their regular desks. Unfortunately for the teacher who did not understand the use of the bra, Amber Werenick was among the missing. Too bad. Had she been there, the blue haired girl could have no doubt told her that Dash McKinley was still too heartbroken, devastated and just plain upset to leave her room yet, Aimee Steele was still too heartbroken, devastated and just plain upset to leave HER room yet, Terrence, Bill and Fossey were being held prisoner against their will in an invisible box on the far side of the playground, Kat Pierce was lying somewhere under the ruins of the Payne/Sutton/Richardson/Vaunratten household, Kenny McCormick was nothing more than a charred collection of ash in the cafeteria... no, I'm sorry. The writer cheerfully withdraws that remark as Kenny runs into the room, hands a note explaining his absence to the teacher ("Was dead. I got better."), and sits down. One might note that his parka looks a lot blacker than usual.  
  
But back to the absentees. The girl with the touch of ice knew that Nathan Richardson and Snowie Vaunratten had been kidnapped by Nath's estranged and psychotic father, Lily Marsh and Eric Cartman were simply wagging, and Matt Sutton was... god knows where. Even Amber, the girl who kept tabs on just about everyone in the town, had no idea what had happened to him. And Amber was unable to tell the teacher the whereabouts of any of the other absent students, because she was quite busy at that moment, searching downtown South Park for her missing friends and loved one.  
  
**********  
  
Thinking back to the previous day's events, Amber felt that things couldn't get much worse. She had managed to stop Dylan and Bonnie from stealing Matt's overblown and ever-increasing powers, but when the cool special effects had stopped, and the blinding light had faded, he had almost seemed like a different person. At least when he had crawled from the wreckage of his destroyed home, he had still been Matt, even though stricken by grief and misery from the loss of Kat. He had taken it really hard, and most likely blamed himself for her demise. Silently she cursed Bonnie and Dylan, for the twenty-seventh time that morning. She knew that they had only been trying to help, but really! What good could have come from trying to strip Matt of his weird powers (and getting weirder by the minute)? They certainly could have come in handy in regards to the still missing Snowie and Nath. Matt was beginning to seem like a living version of the Chaos Emerald he guarded so passionately, and with all that power at his command, it was a sure bet that he'd be able to track down his kidnapped foster siblings and kick the ass of their abductor. But things hadn't gone very well at all.  
  
Although Amber's biggest concern was for that crippled boy that she loved so much, she really had to wonder if Matt was okay. So it was with understandable horror and fear that she stopped in mid-step when she came across him, curled up in the foetal position on the ground not even three metres away from her, and trembling not only from the cold but also the agonised sobs that rocked his body. "Make it stop! Make it stop!" he whimpered, barely audible. Amber gulped and rather cautiously stepped towards him. This looked like the same pain he had suffered last night, when Bonnie and Dylan had attempted to drain his powers! But she'd stopped the machine from doing that! Why was it still hurting him? Had the device had a horrible effect on his brain somehow?  
  
"Matt?" she whispered, taking another dangerous step forward. The boy continued to glow a radioactive-like green and showed no signs of acknowledgment, but instead continued to lie in the snow, whimpering. Realising he hadn't heard her, she walked right up beside him, and bent down. "Are you okay, Matt?" she asked, quite concerned. Matt heard her this time, but still remained where he was, his shaking becoming much more intense. "Matt, how can I help?" she asked. "I don't know what to do!" After what seemed an eternity, she finally got a reply.  
  
"Leave... me..." he whispered, attempting to stand.  
  
Amber shook her head. "No. No, I won't do that! I'm going to get you to a hospital... or a doctor... or something! And then we're going to go find Nath and Snowie!"  
  
Matt fell clumsily back down, and so his reply was slightly muffled by the snow. "You... can't... help... gooo..."  
  
Amber grit her teeth and grabbed his arm, helping him up. "I won't leave you!" she yelled. "We have to save them!"  
  
Matt stood upright at last, shaking much more violently than he had in the snow. "LEAVE... ME... ALONE!!!" he roared. Amber fell backwards in fear and squeaked, terrified. With another blinding flash of light Matt disappeared, leaving Amber alone in the cold snow (which was actually quite a comfortable temperature to her). She sighed, and cursed Dylan and Bonnie a twenty-eighth time. Why did they have to go and fuck things up? Matt wasn't like Lily - sadistic, and hellbent on destruction. There had been no proof that he'd use his glowing features and excess powers to harm anyone, except for the still imprisoned bullies back at the school playground. But hey, anyone would have taken a shot at those three! Still, now it seemed as though Matt's rationality, and just plain essence - what made Matt Matt - were deteriorating, and she had to wonder how things could possibly get any worse.  
  
**********  
  
The answer to that was quite simple, really. Matt just happened to bump into Cartman and Lily. Well actually, Cartman and Lily saw him bump into a truck. They had been walking down the street, minding their own business and swearing quite foully at anyone who would dare suggest that they should be in school, when they had seen him standing in the middle of the street, as if he was stunned or paralysed or something. "Ay, isn't that the kangaroo fucker?" Cartman asked, as he noticed the glowing kid ahead of them.  
  
Lily frowned. "I think it is," she murmured. What had happened to him? 'And more importantly,' the evil demon in her mind asked her, 'how can you exploit it to our advantage?' Before she had time to attempt to come up with an answer to either question, she became aware of a loud horn blaring, as a truck sped down the street towards Matt. Matt either failed to notice it or simply ignored it, and when the driver saw that he wasn't going to get out of the way, he slammed the brakes as hard as he could.  
  
At times like these, five miles per hour can make all the difference. Had the driver been going only five miles slower than he had been, then he could have avoided a collision. But he was going at sixty-five, and not sixty, and so he died a particularly painful death. Though Matt did not move a muscle, he went through the truck like a knife through butter, puncturing various necessary systems such as brakes and steering, which in turn caused the vehicle to swerve wildly, go over the railing, and crash into a chemical factory, resulting in a terrific explosion. Lily and Cartman ran to the rail and peered over at the inferno below. The truck was still visible, as was the driver, who was running around on fire, screaming with pain. There was a small tunnel-like hole in the bottom of the burning truck, in the shape of a nine year old boy. It clearly showed where Matt had impacted. The two peered back at Matt, whose messy hairdo had not even been touched or altered by that stunning display, then stared at each other, slack jawed. "Damn man!" Cartman exclaimed. "Did you see that?!?"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes, half shut in an expression that clearly said, "Duh." Then she turned her attention back to Matt, who was still standing motionless in the street. Incredible - she had never seen such power! The star on her head made her powerful, sure, but she had not yet reached the level of being able to achieve mass destruction without even moving. She doubted that even that fat-assed bitch with the red hair was equal in strength to him. And the foul presence that plagued her mind liked what it saw. She had a feeling that Matt could easily be corrupted in his obvious state of heavy stupor.  
  
And she was right.  
  
**********  
  
When Matt jerked back into consciousness again as Lily approached him, he wasn't really Matt any more. When the Chaos Syphon had been used on him, something inside his head snapped, and now the boy's soul seemed to have disappeared almost entirely, only hints of it lingering here and there. His brain had practically reverted to that of a primate. Intelligence and rationality had left him completely, replaced only by more growing power. It was almost as if the more powerful he became, the less human he turned out. Lily couldn't sense all this, but the small part of her that remained untouched by the evil in her head still considered him carefully. And that small, pure part that was left of her was quick to voice its opinion to her mind: this kid gave her the creeps. However, the rest of her was dominant, and stepped in front of the boy. "So what the hell happened to you?" she asked.  
  
Matt stared at her, looking straight into her eyes (or at least she thought he was - it was impossible to see through those shades). Though he remained absolutely silent, somehow Lily found herself able to hear him answer. It wasn't telepathy or anything, it was more of a... vibe... that surrounded him. She could see it all right there - the disappearance of his foster siblings, the destruction of his home, his emergence as the glowing creature, the loss of Kat, the betrayal by those he had considered friends. Lily could read him like a book. She wanted to try and help him, to comfort him and attempt to return him to normal, and to get Nath and Snowie back. But her actions betrayed her mind, and instead she said, "I hate this town. Bad things are always happening to good people like us here. It's like a curse, one that is impossible to escape from."  
  
Matt's deteriorating mind considered this. Yes, perhaps it was this town, making bad things happen. If that was so, then he had to stop the bad things. No more town, no more bad things. That sounded like it would work. He pictured the ruins of what used to be his home in his head, and made a decision. He would not stop until every building in South Park had suffered the same fate as the one he had lived in. That was the only way to avenge his beloved... Matt paused, no longer able to remember the name of the red haired girl he had adored so much. Then he shook his head. Names no longer mattered to him. All that mattered now was revenge.  
  
**********  
  
The kids that had actually gone to class that day had little warning before the destruction started. Had they paid attention to how quiet and snowy it was that morning, then perhaps they would have taken the time to prepare. Still, it wasn't until distant explosions, growing ever closer, could be heard that the people in the building known as South Park Elementary realised they should have stayed in bed.  
  
"Total annihilation of town again?" Kyle asked, turning to Stan.  
  
"Total annihilation of town again," Stan agreed. "Run for it?" he asked.  
  
"Run for it," Kyle agreed.  
  
Kyle and Stan were the first to flee the building, followed by the rest of the remaining fourth grade, and as they went past other classrooms, their doors opened and their students poured out too. And so it was that when Matt arrived, intent on reducing the building to rubble, that no-one was actually inside at the time.  
  
Gloop was the first one to actually notice him. Eyes and jaw growing wide, he pointed skywards and yelled, "HOLY SHITE! LOOK AT DAT, YAH?!?" Then everyone saw him. Most of the people panicked and ran for it when they saw the incoming green figure hover through the air, blasting every building he came to as he gradually made his way towards them, and so only a few people recognised the figure as Matt Sutton. One of these was Dylan Steele, who instantly felt a pang of guilt in his stomach. Was he responsible for this atrocity? Was this a reaction that Matt had produced due to the effects of the Chaos Syphon on him? Dylan sighed and slunk away from the scene. Bonnie started to go after to him, but seeing that he clearly wished to be alone, let him go.  
  
As Matt approached, one of the kids who was watching fearfully was a girl with red hair, wearing a blue jacket. Her name was Clarissa, although most of the people in town knew her as simply, "Red." She grimaced in fear as she watched yet another building topple, wondering if there was anything she could possibly do to stop this force. She realised that there probably wasn't, but she knew of someone who might have a better chance. A look of determination coming across her face, Clarissa ran as fast as she could, towards the large mansion on top of the hill nearby.  
  
Matt finally came up to the school, having already taken care of the rest of the buildings he could see. This one would follow suit. Extending his arms, he shot a remarkably large and powerful green laser beam from each hand at the school, giving the visual effects coordinators of the show a chance to show off some of their talent. The building shuddered, then creaked, and then gave in to the forces at work and began to crumble. The school collapsed with a loud crash, sending up a dust cloud that set off all asthmatic kids within range of it for a whole hour. Satisfied with his work, Matt turned to move on to the next building...  
  
...and was knocked out of the air by something that rammed into him.  
  
**********  
  
Dr. Maphesto's nephew Bobby had heard the destruction long before Clarissa had run to fetch him, and so it was that they met only a block from the school. Seeing the panic on her face, Bobby grabbed her and hugged her tight, hoping to calm her down. "Are you o-kay, Cla-riss-a?" he asked, stumbling on some of the words. Bobby's tale was one full of pain and suffering, where he had died a long time ago, then later been resurrected by his now deceased father, who had replaced his damaged organs and tissue with that of healthy boys. However, he had been reignited with the spark of life before his father had been able to repair his damaged brain tissue, and thus Bobby, although now healthier than most kids his own age, as well as practically invulnerable, seemed partially animal, his brain being somewhat similar to that of a primate (much like Matt's was right now). But Bobby became more intelligent every day, and was slowly learning how to act human again. For some reason though, he never wore anything other than a pair of black boxer shorts. One would consider this highly illogical behaviour, especially considering the climate in which he lived. But Clarissa didn't care. She had a deep affection for Bobby, as did he for her.  
  
Clarissa gasped for breath, and nodded. "I'm fine Bobby, it's Matt Sutton! There's something really wrong with him!"  
  
Bobby looked confused. Matt? Bobby remembered him - he was that guy who always kept his eyes covered, and had hair even messier than his own. He liked Matt. "Show me," he said.  
  
Clarissa nodded and lead him back, just in time for the two of them to see Matt's successful demolition of the school. Bobby narrowed his crimson eyes and hissed as he watched the scene unfold. "Jeeewel..." he growled.  
  
Bobby liked Matt, but the one thing he didn't like about him was the Chaos Emerald he was in possession of. The glowing rock's extraordinary power freaked him out, and always put him on edge. He did not like that something so small could hold such a great amount of energy, and whenever Matt had hung out with Bobby, he had learned to hide the emerald from his sight, to avoid any unnecessary unpleasantness. Bobby sensed that the jewel had now taken him over, resulting in the mayhem that was currently occurring. Somewhere in him he felt a small feeling of satisfaction, in knowing that he'd been right about the jewel being bad. But he would worry about that later. Right now he had to do something before someone got hurt. And so he did what he felt to be the most logical thing was - jump at the glowing creature who had once been his friend, and knock him to the ground.  
  
**********  
  
Matt stood and glared at the boy who had knocked him down. He knew him, but didn't seem to recall the speed and power that he possessed. All that Matt could tell was that Bobby wanted him to give up his quest, which must mean that he was bad. Matt said nothing as he watched Bobby circle him, like a predator stalking its prey, but his thoughts seemed to be written all over his face. "Town bad. I must wreck. Let me be," was what Bobby got, basically. He hissed, his now glowing eyes watching Matt as he too began to circle. "Town not bad," he growled. "Stop hurting town."  
  
Matt shook his head, getting angry. "Town bad! Town hurt good girl, good girl die! Must wreck town!" he silently communicated.  
  
Bobby hesitated when he heard that someone had died, but then shook his head, glaring again. "Towns don't kill good girls. Bad people kill good girls. Leave town alone," he ordered.  
  
Matt paused, hesitating. "Bad people?" was the look on his face.  
  
Bobby stopped too, nodding. Yes! He was helping! "Bad people!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "Bad people bad!"  
  
Matt seemed to think this over. Then glaring again, he silently charged at Bobby, thinking, 'You stop me, knock me down! You bad people! I wreck bad people!'  
  
Bobby dodged out of the way impossibly fast. Matt skidded to a confused stop, hovering in place over where the blonde boy had just been standing, to watch him finish a back flip and land a good ten metres away. Normally, Matt would have been able to remember that Bobby could boast the speed of a cheetah, the agility of a cat, and the strength of a gorilla. But with his mind deteriorating, he had no idea, and only found annoyance in this. Matt flew at him again, and Bobby performed another back flip, landing back where he started. Matt growled and charged him down again, this time not stopping to watch him. Bobby found himself having to jump and dodge out of the way without a pause for a good two minutes as Matt zoomed at him from all angles, trying to mow him down. But eventually he came to a stop as he realised that his tactics weren't working. Hovering in place as he wondered what to do, he got a surprise as Bobby now jumped at him again. This time however, Matt saw him coming, and so he flew out of harm's way before they could collide again. Flying to the side, Matt turned himself upright and set his feet on the ground, watching Bobby carefully. The two both seemed to realise that the other was too fast for them to harm by any means other than hand to hand combat, and each nodded with recognition. No running this time. This time, they would face each other until it had been proven who was the stronger of the two.  
  
Both charging forward at the same time, they collided in the dead centre of the distance that had been between them, the power of the meeting knocking both of them backwards. Bobby was the first to find his feet, and he wasted no time in jumping on top of Matt, who had been struggling to get back up, and punching him across the face as hard as he could, and then again. Bobby managed to hit him three times before Matt grunted and kicked his legs upwards, and knocking the boy off him. Now Matt leapt on top of him, and started punching him in the face, the ribs, the stomach, anywhere. But after the fifth uppercut, Matt pulled back a little, realising that his fist hurt. Hitting Bobby felt more like attacking a steel punching bag, and he felt sure that he had bruised his knuckles. Looking down though, he saw no injury, and the pain left him a second later. But by then Bobby had gained the time he needed to kick upwards and nail Matt in the groin, knocking him backwards with a roar of pain. Bobby charged to leap on top of him and attack again, but Matt grabbed his arms as he closed in and flipped him over his head, judo style. The two combatants jumped to their feet and charged at each other, colliding in the middle of their path and going tumbling off in different directions. This pattern repeated itself several times - charge, hit, fall; charge, hit, fall. Then on their fifth collision, instead of falling away, they locked wrists and leaned in close to each other, growling viciously and hoping to... well, no-one was actually really quite sure what they hoped to achieve by this part of their confrontation. One would push the other backwards a few steps before their opponent would get a hold of his footing, stand his ground, and in turn push the other backwards. After a few minutes of this, they ended up on equal footing and stood in place, just pushing against the other.  
  
Finally though, Matt got the upper hand. Realising that this battle of wills was futile, he let his feet leave the ground and thrust himself forward, knocking Bobby off his balance and into the snow. He was only down for a second, but that was all it took. Matt held his hand out above him, and a small ball of light instantly appeared in it, becoming a green fireball. Yelling a victorious war cry, Matt threw his fist forward, shooting the ball of flame at his opponent at a great speed. Bobby had just stood up again, and only had a second between seeing the incoming danger and the impact of it to get out of the way.  
  
Unfortunately, due to being distracted by Clarissa screaming, "NOOOO!!!" Bobby wasn't ready when it hit.  
  
The fireball struck its target, and with a scream of pain Bobby fell backwards, defeated. Clarissa ran over to him, bent down and cradled him in his arms, sobbing. "Bobby, no..." she wailed, holding him tightly. Matt hovered in place, ready to finish the blonde boy off with another fireball, but hesitated when the red haired girl ran to his aid. His initial thought was to attack anyway. After all, someone who wants to help a bad person must be bad too. He raised his fist, charged up another fireball, aimed at his target...  
  
...held his fire.  
  
Something in the girl's face... the way it displayed both great fear and great love at the same time... Matt closed his fist, causing the fireball to extinguish with a small, "poof." This girl could not possibly be bad. In fact, the expression on her face reminded him of the red haired girl that he had lost. No, he couldn't possibly hurt this girl. But if she was not bad, then why would she help someone who was? Matt paused, attempting to figure out an answer to this question. He was unable to come up with one though, and decided that he would be making better use of his time if he was to continue with his quest. A blinding light lit the area, and when it vanished, so had he.  
  
**********  
  
Clarissa looked up, and seeing Matt gone, wiped her eyes clean of tears. For a minute there she thought she was going to suffer the same fate as Bobby had. Not that it had done too much damage to him, of course. Bobby had faced many dangers in his life, and this had not been the worst of them. Already the burn scars on his body were healing, and soon the only evidence that would remain of his battle would be the charred black areas that were still visible on his shorts and in his hair. He had however been knocked unconscious, which presented a problem, as she should probably get him back home so that his Uncle could check him over and make sure he would be okay. Seeing his cousin Terrence, and his friends standing nearby, she beckoned for them to come help her, but instead of rushing over to assist, they instead behaved rather bizarrely and started doing mime impressions, making out like they were trapped inside an invisible box. Clarissa, of course having no way of knowing that they actually WERE trapped in an invisible box, simply figured they were being the usual assholes that they were, and instead settled for pulling the still unconscious boy onto a nearby sled, and tugging him up the hill herself.  
  
**********  
  
Any thoughts remaining about Bobby vanished from Matt's head as he made a flashy arrival elsewhere in South Park, complete with all the usual bright lights and special effects. Content that this area was filled with more buildings for him to demolish, Matt didn't hesitate about getting back to his work. Tiring of using the double laser beam tactic, as continued use of it left him feeling somewhat drained of energy, Matt was just as easily satisfied by pelting the surrounding structures with green fireballs until they caught alight and started the process of burning to the ground. He discovered that this required little effort as he struck his first new target - a single fireball was sufficient to alight it, after which it began to burn rather fiercely.  
  
Dash happened to be walking down the opposite side of the street when the first building went up in flames.  
  
The young girl, who had only recently (unwillingly) showed off what a nice stream of raven black hair she had, looked up in a combination of fear and anger as she heard the all too familiar sound of flames crackling. She had been stripped of her pants, her secret identity, her role as volunteer firefighter, and her dignity, not to mention had thrown away her helmet, but despite all the things that she had lost, at that instant it seemed to her that nothing important had changed. She was still Dash McKinley, and that was still a fire. And she still HATED FIRE! Muttering under her breath her usual catch phrase of, "Fire bad," she pulled one arm out of her backpack's straps and swung the pack around, opening it. The girl had been in such a state of depression since Butters had gone and revealed what she truly was that she had failed to notice that she hadn't take the pack off at all, even though it had made her sleep the previous night rather uncomfortable. The pack still contained all her necessary gear - RF radio, hose, fire extinguisher, fire axe... Dash grabbed the hose and screwed it to a nearby fire hydrant, beginning to feel the exhilaration that only fighting a blaze could bring on her. It made a welcome change, as for the first time in just over twenty-four hours, all traces of misery left her face, determination the only thing shining through.  
  
Dash pulled the handle of the hose down as hard as she could, spraying water forward and soaking the burning building. Oh yeah. Now this felt better. Firefighting was actually quite therapeutic, in a way. Just the feeling of satisfaction she got from knowing she was helping people got her by at the end of the day. Dash was finally able to concentrate on something other than Butters, and her whole world crashing down. She was concentrating so hard though, that she failed to notice a few things. Like the flames that she was putting out were that of a neon green, instead of their usual red-yellow shade. Or that Butters had coincidentally chosen this street to walk down after leaving the chaos at the school, and was now standing out of harm's way, watching her sadly, her prized fire helmet still on his head. Or the glowing figure that hovered through the air, responsible for the fire she battled. You know. Little things like that.  
  
But she did notice when another building ignited.  
  
Dash had only just gotten the first blaze under control when another erupted not even ten metres away. A look of confusion evident on her face, she shrugged and turned her hose on the second fire, determined to extinguish it too. No sooner had she done that then she had to train her weapon on the next building, which had come under attack only a few seconds before she finished with the second one. "What is this?!? Spontaneous combustion day?!?" she asked herself incredulously as she set her sights on this latest of the blazing buildings, only to see the house next door catch fire too. "Wait, that's not fair!" she yelled. "I haven't even started on this one yet!" A fifth building caught fire, and this time Dash saw the green fireball shooting towards it, and looked up in astonishment as she saw the cause of the destruction floating above the street. "...whoa," was the first word to escape her lips as she watched him target building after building, and unleash fireballs upon each. Then anger came over her. How DARE HE?!? What the hell was Matt's problem?!? "HEY ASSHOLE! KNOCK IT OFF!" she screamed, shoving the handle on the hose to maximum blast, and aiming at him. Matt turned slowly to see what was yelling at him, and was knocked out of the sky for a second time that day before he was able to react. He lay unmoving in the snow as Dash turned the hose off, slowly approaching him.  
  
"Dash, no!" came a strangled cry from nearby. Dash looked up and glared coldly as she realised that the source of the cry was Butters. She pointed the hose at him. "Get lost Butters, unless you want some too," she growled, then turned back towards Matt, all too slowly. Butters had seen what she hadn't when she had looked over at him - Matt slowly lifting his head and emotionlessly observing her. He hadn't seen what Matt had done to Bobby - he had ran away as soon as the school had collapsed - but he knew that Dash was in danger, and Butters did the first thing that came to his mind. Time seemed to go into slow motion over the next few seconds as Butters pulled the shiny red helmet from his head and flung it as hard as he could at Dash, frisbee-style, whilst at the same time, Matt had lifted his arm, a green ball of light appearing in it. Dash's face became a mask of horror as she saw the danger coming straight at her, unable to get out of the way in time. The fireball shot forward, and the first thing it struck was the helmet, which had flown right into the path of the flames at exactly the right second to take the brunt of the blast. Unfortunately, the helmet wasn't large enough to stop the force entirely, and Dash still got hit quite severely, catching alight.  
  
As time returned to its regular pace, Butters, who had started running towards her the second he had thrown the helmet, leapt on top of Dash, rolling the two of them over and over through the snow until the flames were extinguished. Coming to a stop, Butters looked back in Matt's direction fearfully, but he had already made good with another disappearing act, satisfied with all the burning carnage present on this street. Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned back to Dash, starting to say, "Everything's okay now..." And that was when he first became aware that she wasn't moving.  
  
Gaping in horror, Butters pressed two fingers to her neck, attempting to take her pulse, just like she had shown him. There was none. Realising that she wasn't breathing either, the boy started trying to perform CPR on her, whilst at the same time having to deal with a large amount of pain, panic and fear. He would later look back on this moment and find it ironic, as he was attempting to resuscitate the person who had taught him resuscitation in the first place. Stopping to check if there had been any improvement, Butters allowed the first tears to roll down his face. She still wasn't breathing, had no heartbeat. "Please Dash, you can't leave me!" he wailed, burying his head into her smouldering jacket. "C'mon Dash! Stay with me, it's not your time yet!" He looked into her eyes in hope of some response, any response. Getting none, he realised the urgency of his task, and returned to the job of trying to revive the girl. "Dash... Dash..." he whispered in sobs, over and over, as he continued to push down on her ribs again and again. Then he bent down to her face and breathed into her mouth, trying to get the air flowing again. Pausing to check her condition again, he still saw no improvement.  
  
"Oh please Dash!" he sobbed. "I... I... I... love... you..."  
  
From that day onwards, Butters would always wonder if the words he had said had been responsible in any way for what had happened next. He had decided to try again, knowing that if he didn't revive her within the next few minutes, then she was gone. Somewhere in the back of his head he registered that he had been burned rather badly himself; from having rolled on top of Dash he had set himself alight too; but he didn't care at that point. His only thoughts were for the girl he was trying to bring back to life. And so it was with much relief and joy that upon his first push against her ribs that he was rewarded with the sight of Dash coughing her way back into life before falling into something of an erratic breathing pattern and heartbeat, critically injured but alive. Her eyes fluttered half open for a few seconds, looked up at her saviour, then shut again as the girl succumbed to unconsciousness. Butters sighed in relief and allowed himself to collapse beside her, an arm draped over her protectively. Then he too fell unconscious. And that was how the ambulance drivers found them when they arrived on the scene minutes later.  
  
**********  
  
At this point, the writer had intended to add a scene of heartfelt happiness and hope. Something to lighten the atmosphere a little, after all that ugly destruction and such. Unfortunately, given that this particular scene takes place at the ruins of the place Matt used to reside, and more importantly, that Dylan Steele had just walked onto the premises, it is more likely to be one of manic depression and dry sarcasm.  
  
Dylan sat down on a big chunk of wall and placed his head in his hands. He had wanted to come some place quiet where he could think about things in private, and consider what he should do now. Well, what better place could there be to do that then the ruins that lay here from yesterday? As insane as Matt seemed to have become, even he would show no interest in what had already been destroyed. Dylan shuddered as the memory came back to him of less than 24 hours ago, when he'd been walking here to return Matt's comic book, incidentally the same one that had given him the idea of subjecting Matt to a Chaos Syphon, and caused what would no doubt be the end of the world. Funny, he certainly hadn't pictured the apocalypse to look anything like this.  
  
Dylan sighed, and turned his mind to what he felt was the most important question in his head: what should he do now? His first thought was to run home, convince his parents and Aimee to throw anything necessary in the car (which meant that Aimee herself wouldn't be required) and to burn rubber back to their family in California, away from the chaos here. Dylan figured that act to be pointless, as Matt was clearly in one of those, "resistance is futile," states of mind. They're always the same, these maniacs with insane amounts of powers; not happy until they've destroyed and killed everything on the face of the Earth. If they were to run, then their lives would likely only be extended for another few days, weeks at the best. And his gut told him they wouldn't be very pleasant weeks, especially seeing as he'd be sharing a house with his niece, the notorious Ellie, whom he couldn't even understand half the time. No, if he were to die, better to make it as quick and painless as possible.  
  
His next thought was to try and stop the beast that Matt had become, but he quickly ruled that one out too. Although he hadn't seen Matt swat away Dash like an annoying fly, or his more evenly tipped match against Bobby, Dylan had a feeling that he would come out much worse for wear if he were to attempt even going near the crazed boy right now. Certainly his initial attempt to help him the previous day had gone awry, and in the worst possible way. Any more screwing with forces he didn't understand could make things even worse - although he couldn't see how. Besides, why bother trying to save the world? What had it ever done for him?  
  
Quite frankly, the only real option Dylan could see was to wait for his death to come. It was an unthinkable thing, and one he guessed would be slow, painful, and worst of all, boring. But he honestly couldn't see anything productive coming from attempting to do anything else. The signs that he had passed on the way here - "The End is Coming," "Book of Some Dude; Chapter Something Or Other; Verse Umpteen," and "Eat at Joe's Diner," - were beginning to seem less stupid... almost. Indeed, the idea of Joe's Diner was held a slight appeal, seeing as the school had been destroyed before lunch had been served. The food there was less than healthy - not even all that hygienic. But hunger can make people overlook these things. Of course, that was assuming that the restaurant was still standing.  
  
Dylan stood back up and sighed, contemplating the idea of finding Bonnie as he wiped the dust from the rear of his pants. On the one hand, it would be nice to spend his last few hours in the company of someone he actually liked as a person, but on the other hand she would be in a, "Dylan, we 'ave to do sommat!" mood, one he considered completely and utterly useless. One of the most frequent arguments the two had was over Dylan's outlook on life. Bonnie considered it that of a manic depressive, but he considered it more of a realist's point of view. Still undecided on whether to attempt locating the girl, Dylan turned to leave...  
  
...and his eyes picked up on a bright piece of plastic that was glinting in the early afternoon sun, something he had missed prior to then, due to his eyesight being almost as bad as Stevie Wonder's.  
  
Curious, Dylan walked over to it for a better look. It appeared to be the end of a plastic tube of some kind, a glistening turquoise colour, and in surprisingly good condition, considering that a whole house lay in ruins around it. Only the top few centimetres stuck out of the rubble on top of it, but despite being almost wholly submerged, it didn't appear to be bent or dented, only scratched in a few places. It wasn't even all that dusty, which was perhaps the most peculiar thing. Plaster had come down all over the place when the building had fallen. Matt himself had been wearing a good layer of it when he had emerged from the debris. Experimentally, he bent down and tapped on the tube with his index finger. He nearly jumped out of his skin when there was a reply from below in the sound of a soft squeal, and a low moan. Good lord, there was someone alive down there! It was at that moment that Dylan realised that he recognised the plastic tube. That was Kat's snorkel.  
  
Dylan considered his options. To him, (and as always, his opinion was the only one that mattered to him) Kat was a psychotic, raving maniac at the best of times, and at the worst times... well, it's difficult to top a psychotic, raving maniac. If he was to save her now, he knew he would come to regret it later. Of course, if her weren't to save her now, and Matt found out, then he probably WOULDN'T live to regret NOT saving her. Besides, that was his friend's girlfriend buried under there. He couldn't just leave her there. Or anyone, for that matter. Well... maybe if it had been Stan...  
  
'Enough rationalising this. Get your ass to work, poindexter. You've got a lot of rocks and debris to pull off her.' Dylan bent down and grunted as he attempted to pull a particularly heavy rock free, at the same time lamenting that even the voices inside his head insulted him.  
  
**********  
  
Matt was beginning to get seriously annoyed by all the people intent on picking a fight with him. Yet, here he was again, now trading battle blows with someone a little more his speed - a witch.  
  
When Matt had teleported into this newest area of town to trash, he'd had a whole minute to himself without being interrupted by the annoying residents of this town. And then Eric Cartman had walked onto the scene, Lily at his side. Lily had been at the same time overjoyed and pissing herself, her inner demon as usual giving her the worst case of split personality disorder seen since a cheesy sitcom. Frasier maybe, sounds like the kind of thing they'd do. Cartman though... he was just pissing himself in general, as the stain on the front of his pants was attribute to. Kenny and Gloop had walked up to stand beside him. "You gahs re-spon-cybil for all diss shite?" the latter had asked them. Both Lily and Cartman ignored him.  
  
Cartman had been the next one on the list of locals to challenge Matt. "Ay! You stupid hippy! Whah don't you go back to... putting on your mom's dresses... a-and doing dope... and beating up all the other hippies in group therapy?!?"  
  
Matt, Kenny, Lily and Gloop all gave him a look that clearly said, "...what?!?"  
  
"Ah'm just sayin' that he oughta stop blowin' up everything in saht, that's all."  
  
Cartman never was very smart.  
  
Confused or not, Matt knew an insult when he heard one, and had fired a green fireball at all four of them. After battling Bobby, he had come to the conclusion that apart from destroying the town, he also needed to kill any bad people, which he translated to as anyone who attacked him, verbally or physically. Lily and Kenny jumped aside, and Cartman and Gloop ran off down the street, squealing like fat little piggies. For the first time since yesterday's disaster, Matt smiled. Even with his brain crumbling around him, he still found that amusing. Lily however, didn't. "You sunnuva bitch!" she yelled. "If you've harmed Carty in any way, I swear..." She had then turned to watch the two fat boys running out of sight around the corner, and turned back to Matt just in time to see two laser bolts coming right at her. In the nick of time, the star on her forehead glowed silver and a large laser pulse-wave emitted from it, pushing the lasers back until they were about halfway between the two. Matt frowned, but never let up for an instant. Lily on the other hand was sweating, the glow from her star gradually getting dimmer and dimmer. Just as Matt had suspected. She was powerful, yes indeed, but the star her magic was formed on was pure. With the negative, evil vibe he had sensed hanging over her, he had known that her power would be reduced. Sure enough, the twin lasers from his hands were steadily moving forward again, towards the blonde girl. Matt had turned up the heat then, and before she had time to consider making a getaway, Lily had been blasted out of the sky, unconscious. After making a hand gesture which had Kenny groping at his throat, trying to get air back into his lungs until he fell over dead, Matt had turned his attention back to Lily, and moved in for the kill only to be knocked down by another witch - Tina, who just happened to be the same "fat-assed bitch with red hair" that Lily had been thinking so badly of only hours ago. Matt, extremely irritated that he had been knocked out of the air three times in the one day, threw all caution to the wind and snarled nastily as he charged her down.  
  
"Oh yeah, that's the way to charm a woman," Tina muttered, sidestepping out of the way of his attack.  
  
**********  
  
Cartman ran inside his house, slamming the door behind him and panting in exhaustion. That had been a close one. It wasn't until he heard a second boy panting that he realised that Gloop had also made it indoors. "Ay! What the hell are you doing in mah house, sauerkraut ass? Get the hell out!" he yelled.  
  
Gloop looked back at him incredulously. "You be nuts?!? Wit Matt out dere?!? Ah ain't do crap, yah?!?"  
  
"Eric, is that you?" a third voice asked, as Liane Cartman stepped into the room. Her eyes falling on Gloop, she gasped. The cookie tray in her hands fell to the ground, where it lay forgotten for the next three days. "Augustus?!?" she asked shakily, as if she couldn't believe it.  
  
Gloop frowned. "How you know mah name?" he asked, suspiciously.  
  
"How's your mother, Ooters?" she asked, studying the boy carefully.  
  
Gloop looked interested now. "You be friend of ma?" Liane nodded. "Ma be dead, yah? Drink too much mead at Octoberfest. Dat be whah ah move to South Park."  
  
Cartman looked confused. "What, your Dad live here or something?"  
  
"Dat be what ma tell me, but ah no fahnd dem. AH been living in VB home since move here, yah?"  
  
Cartman looked even more confused by this. "...VB home?"  
  
Liane spoke up again. "I think that he means a foster home, dear," she explained, getting a nod from Gloop. "Ooters never told you what happened to your father, did she?"  
  
Gloop frowned. "Well no... she just tell me day in South Park, Colo-rodo. And dat day horny prosy-toot, but it sure as hell no be Garrison. Ah check already, yah?"  
  
Liane looked rather solemn. "No, Augustus," she said somberly. "I am your father."  
  
The three of them stood in the hallway, staring at each other for a good two minutes before anyone spoke.  
  
"So... so..." Cartman started.  
  
"Dat would mean dat... him" Gloop tried.  
  
"And him..." Cartman spat.  
  
"Are related?" Liane finished for them, nodding. "Oh yes indeed. You two are half brothers."  
  
Cartman and Gloop turned to stare at each other. "SUNNUVABEETCH!!!" they yelled in unison, expressing their mutual lack of joy at finding their long last connection.  
  
And at this point the writer would like to express his amazement that Liane Cartman got two separate women pregnant within the space of a few months. In a word... damn!  
  
**********  
  
This was Matt's toughest fight yet; Tina had matched him move for move. He had hurled green fireballs, she had disposed of them with a blast of water. He had attempted the lasers, she had countered with a laser attack of her own. He had charged at her, she had simply dodged out of the way, moving with surprising grace and speed for someone of her size. Now both of them had taken to the air, and were flying in every possible direction, emitting powerful bolts of electricity from their hands as they attempted to zap their opponent, whilst avoiding getting zapped themselves.  
  
As I'm sure you'll appreciate, this is quite a tough thing to pull off, and as a result they had been dodging through the air for almost ten minutes now, without a single bolt hitting its intended target.  
  
Matt was growing tired of this game, and decided to try one of his other trump cards. Tina saw the look on his face though, and anticipated his next move. She was therefore ready for him when he without warning vanished, and in the same instant reappeared directly above her. As he had already proven several times that day, Matt had finally mastered the art of Chaos Control, an ability used through a Chaos Emerald to teleport, and one that he'd been straining to obtain for months, before he'd gone off the deep end. Tina was unable to avoid his attack when he relocated, but then again, he was unable to avoid hers, and they both dropped to the ground like stones, crashing about twenty-five metres apart from each other. Both were back on their feet in the same instant, and performing the same attack. Matt threw his hands forward and shot his twin laser bolts again, but this time they crossed in midair, joining to become one enormous green blast, speeding towards Tina. It, of course, was held in check by a laser of identical size, this one a calm, cool blue colour. Matt and Tina were both putting all they had into this attack - no matter the outcome, no matter which target was hit, this would be the last move in this battle, and they both knew it. So the two strained with all they had as the lasers remained trapped in the middle of their conflict, pulsing with energy and power, but unable to be let loose as they so wished. The creators of the lasers stood in place, also unable to move, and unwilling to even if it had been possible. Neither of them spoke, which was becoming less of a surprise with Matt's new ways of doing things, although it showed that Tina was in her deadliest of moods. She was the most pissed when she said nothing.  
  
It is said that in all events, timing can be the most important factor. So it is perhaps little surprise, that in the space of a single second, a young girl cried out in fear, a creature hell-bent on destruction suddenly hesitated, and a reborn boy launched into action.  
  
Dylan had helped Kat into town, half-carrying her, but they had both stopped in astonishment at the light show that Matt and Tina were putting on for them. Kat had had her eyes shut for the last minute or two, as it hurt a lot to keep them in use, but when she did open them, she stared in sheer horror at the scene before them. Even though she was only half- conscious, she would recognise that figure a mile away, glowing or not. "MATTY?!?" she had cried out in a combination of fear and confusion. Mostly fear.  
  
Matt had heard the girl, and turned his head in disbelief towards the voice. 'It's impossible...' he thought, then saw her. Bloody, covered in dirt and grit, obviously very badly hurt, but there was no doubt about it. It was...  
  
"Kat."  
  
It was the first word he had uttered since his outburst at Amber earlier that morning.  
  
The battle forgotten, Matt took his first step toward her, a lone tear rolling down his face. That's as far as he got though - Bobby had woken up, tracked him down, and now lunged at him. Through planning or instinct, or just pure, dumb luck, we'll never know, but Bobby flew past Matt's face with a loud war-cry, snatching at the only thing he could see that wasn't glowing green.  
  
Matt's sunglasses.  
  
Matt went down hissing in agony, his hands over his eyes as he yowled in pain. And then Tina's blast found him.  
  
When Tina had seen Matt lose interest in her, she had tried to stop herself. Insane or not, Matt was still her friend. But it had happened too quick. As it was, Bobby only just barely avoided being pulverised himself. When the lights and special effects died down, everyone uncovered their eyes to an awful sight. Matt was lying half buried in the snow - the force of the blast had driven him that far backwards. He was no longer glowing; indeed, it seemed that any trace of his powers had been wiped from him. He wasn't moving. Tina, Dylan and Kat all ran to him, as did Bobby after a moment's hesitation. Tina wasted no time in checking him over, but Kat screamed with rage and kicked at Tina, pummelling her with what little strength she had left. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MATTY?!?" she screamed, bursting into tears much like Matt had done not even twenty-four hours ago. Dylan grabbed her and tried to pin her arms to her sides. "Let Tina check him..." he grunted, struggling to keep her from breaking free. Kat finally gave up and collapsed to the ground, helpless sobs shaking her frame. Tina shook her head gravely. "He's in bad shape," she announced.  
  
For once, Dylan had no desire to point out that she was stating the obvious, but kept his mouth shut and instead waited for her diagnosis.  
  
"My attack knocked all the power and energy right out of him," she explained. "With that gone, he's no longer protected against the injuries he got yesterday. He's bleeding badly from some bad wounds to his head and chest, and I think he's got a broken arm and leg. Rib too, by the looks of it. He's also dehydrated and only barely hanging on to life."  
  
Dylan said nothing as all this sank in. "Can you help him?" he finally asked.  
  
Tina shrugged. "Lily's better at healing than..." she started, turning her head. But Lily had already vanished. She sighed and turned back to Dylan. "I'll do what I can. But if we don't get him to a hospital quick, he's not going to make it."  
  
As Tina and Dylan started to drag Matt towards potential medical aid, the camera zoomed in on his face, which was still locked in a gaze of disbelief...  
  
**********  
  
"Tumbling, burning with white-hot fire, I plunged into the depths of the abyss.  Unspeakable pain... relentless agony... ... time ceased to exist... only this torture... and a deepening hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this hell..."  
  
**********  
  
"There is no-one who can stop me this time, Nathan," smirked Peter Richardson as he stood over his estranged son, restrained by several metres of thick rope. "Your foster brother is no more than a memory now, and without any of your little friends to help you, you are nothing."  
  
Snowie whimpered in fright. She too was tied at the hands with rope, and absolutely terrified. This horrible man had almost killed both of them in Australia last year. She honestly couldn't see what would stop him this time.  
  
Nath spoke up, mainly to convince Snowie not to give up hope, but also praying that he would believe it himself. "You don't know who you're messing with, chump," he spat. "You think Matt could be killed by a house falling on him? Get real. He has powers that you can't even imagine. And he'll kick your ass. Again!"  
  
Richardson considered this. It was true, that boy had an annoying habit of royally screwing up his plans. He had smuggled Nath out of Australia years ago, he had let him escape his clutches when he'd had them cornered at the MCG last year, and he'd even had the nerve to free him just before he could shoot the little cripple. Then he'd made another escape when he'd become the target of the psychopath's gun. And if he had powers... well, it certainly couldn't hurt to be sure the boy was dead.  
  
"Alright then, say that he isn't dead. Where would he be now?" the man asked.  
  
Nath glared. "In your dreams, asshole," he snarled.  
  
Richardson just smiled evilly at that. "No matter, son. Patience is one of my strong suits," he declared as he headed for the door. "He'll be along," he hissed in an evil whisper.  
  
Snowie squeaked in terror.  
  
**********  
  
"An eternity passed, and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness.  The descent had destroyed me... and yet... I lived...."  
  
**********  
  
When Matt opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a blindingly bright light. Yelping in pain, he shut them again. That had hurt! Someone else was here though. They spoke up, having heard him. "Matty! You're awake!" It was Kat. Hearing her voice made him smile. At last he was reunited with his true love.  
  
"Oh Kat," he whispered. "I'm sorry I didn't protect you."  
  
"Awww!" came the reply as something clumsily bumped into him and hugged him tight. "It's okay! Don't you worry about that, I'm all better now! Okay?"  
  
Matt shook his head, a single tear rolling down his face. "No! No you're not better! You're dead! And... so am I..." A look of confusion came across the boy's face. "But... how'd I get to Heaven? After all the pain I caused... and why can't I see?"  
  
Kat giggled. "You need your shiny sunglasses, silly Matty! Here you go!"  
  
Matt felt the familiar and comforting touch of his shades being slipped into their regular place on his nose, and cautiously opened his eyes. Kat was standing next to him, adoringly running a hand through his hair as he reclined on a bed. The image was a little blurry, but as it cleared he was able to come to the conclusion that he was in a hospital room. But that meant...  
  
"I'm alive?!?" he asked, incredulous.  
  
"We both are!" grinned Kat, going in for another hug. Only then did Matt notice the pain in his abdomen.  
  
"Ow! Kat, watch the ribs!" he yelped. Kat immediately jumped back a bit, a look of shame coming across her face. "Sorry Matty..."  
  
Matt shook his head. "Don't worry about it, I'll be okay," he smiled. "I got some pretty bad hurts though..." Memories of his last battle came back to him. That final laser blast... Matt looked down at his hands and clothing. "I'm not glowing any more..." he observed. "That blast must have knocked the juice right outta me... how long was I out?" he asked.  
  
A new voice joined the conversation. "Almost three days," Dylan answered, stepping forward. "We didn't think you were going to make it, ya know."  
  
Matt's vision finally reached full power, and he was able to make out Bonnie and Amber also standing nearby, as well as an empty bed beside his (sheets in disaray all over the place - that just HAD to be Kat's bed), and on the other side of the room, beds containing...  
  
"Dash! Butters! Oh no.. are they..."  
  
"Chill Matt, we're fine," Dash answered, sitting up and waving nonchalantly. Butters sat up too.  
  
"W-we get d-discharged t-t-today," he added.  
  
"Me too," Kat added happily.  
  
"What about...?"  
  
"Bobby?" Dylan asked. Matt nodded. "Fine. He's in better shape than any of you guys. In fact, he's the one who helped Tina give you the ass kicking."  
  
Matt lay back down and thought. Well, at least anyone he had attempted to harm was going to be okay. That was a load off his mind. He was still deeply ashamed of his actions, but he wouldn't have been able to live with himself had he killed anyone. Well, he had killed Kenny, but that didn't count. There were few people in town that HADN'T killed Kenny. But there was something else bothering him. There should be some other people here... he gasped and sat up again. "Nath! Snowie! We have to save them!"  
  
Amber's gaze went to the floor. "Matt... I haven't been any to find any trace of them... no-one has," she sighed, eyes getting teary. "Chances are that they're already..."  
  
Matt shook his head. "No. They're still alive. I can feel it."  
  
Everyone stared at him in surprise. "But... didn't Tina put your powers into submission?" Dylan asked in confusion.  
  
Matt shook his head. "Not exactly. She got rid of all the energy and stuff that was destroying me. But no-one can take the Force from someone. I can feel that Nath and Snowie are still alive. And I know where."  
  
Amber brightened. "Great! Then we can let the cops know and send them in!"  
  
Matt shook his head and threw the covers off himself, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "They wouldn't have a hope against the forces Nath's dad's allied himself with. I must face him myself."  
  
"Are you nuts?" Amber asked. "You're still a wreck! Anything that could wipe out a platoon of cops... well okay, considering the local police that wouldn't take much," she admitted. "But still, they'd knock you over in less than 3 seconds!"  
  
Matt shook his head again as he walked over to the wardrobe and opened it. Sure enough, his clothes were in there. He pulled off his hospital gown and threw it to the floor. Everyone except Kat groaned and looked away. Matt reached for his pants and pulled them on. "I'm okay. Just a few aches and bruises. Nothing broken," he pointed out, wiggling his arms and legs as he reached for his shirt.  
  
"Tina did that," Dylan piped up. "You had a broken arm, leg and rib until she got involved."  
  
"Remind me to thank her later," Matt said, pulling the shirt down over his head and reaching for his jacket. Picking it up, he realised it was much lighter than usual, and checked the pockets. Hmmm. "Where the hell's my Chaos Emerald?" Matt asked, frowning.  
  
Dylan looked kind of awkward. "Damn, I knew you'd ask that... Tina took it. She said she'd let you have it back when she was satisfied you were no longer a danger to yourself or others."  
  
Matt became quite frustrated. "Dammit! Forget what I said about thanking her!" he grumbled.  
  
Dylan shrugged. "Well I can see her point. Won't do anyone much good if you go back to your default setting."  
  
"My default setting?!?"  
  
"You know... 'crush, kill, destroy'?"  
  
Matt gave him a very dirty look and headed for the door. "I don't have time for this bullshit! I have to save my family!" he yelled. Before he could leave though, an hand grabbed his arm. Kat, who had been rather quiet for the last few minutes, held him back and spoke up. "Matty?"  
  
"Kat?"  
  
"Sit."  
  
Matt hesitated, then sighed and jumped back on his bed.  
  
Kat was frowning, and looking quite firm for once in her life. "Now you listen to me, Matthew Sutton," she said. Matt looked rather astonished. He'd never seen this side of Kat before. "I'm not letting you go out there alone. Either I go with you, or you don't go at all!"  
  
Matt shook his head. "Forget it, Kat! I'm not going to let you get hurt again!"  
  
Kat stood her ground. "I won't let you go!" she yelled, throwing herself at him and starting to sob. Matt stood up and held out his arms, which she ran into. "I almost lost you, Matty," she whispered. "I can't let that happen again."  
  
Matt looked close to tears himself as he hugged her tight. "Kat... he wants me. Richardson wants me. Not Nath, not Snowie, me. He's pissed about me knifing him last year, and then getting away when he was about to shoot me."  
  
Amber looked surprised. "It's a trap?" she asked.  
  
"And Nath and Snowie are the bait," Matt confirmed. "That's why I have to go."  
  
Kat stayed firm, despite her tears. "If you go Matty, I go," she whispered, her mind set. Matt sighed. He would never forgive himself if Kat got hurt... hell, he was still unable to forgive himself for letting her get hurt when the house had fell down on top of them.  
  
"I'm going too," Amber said, crossing her arms. "And don't even think of trying to talk me out of it. That's my boyfriend out there." Matt nodded.  
  
"I'll come too," Dash said, pulling herself out of bed.  
  
"We'll all go," Bonnie smiled. "Ay, Dylan?"  
  
Dylan muttered something. It didn't sound like, "Of course."  
  
"Ay, Dylan?" Bonnie asked, a lot firmer this time.  
  
"Fine, fine..."  
  
Matt held a hand up. "Hold it, guys," he instructed. "If we're going to do this, let's do it right. I need you guys to get a posse of kids together. As many as you can. Make sure that Stan Marsh, Zed Sweetchucks and Kyren Jefferson are part of the team, it is absolutely essential. Got it?"  
  
Bonnie, Amber and Dylan all nodded. Kat squealed in delight. "Floofy boy! Yay!"  
  
"Good. Tell everyone to meet in front of the hospital exactly one hour from now. Make sure they all know their lives will be at risk, and that their participation is completely voluntary. Okay?"  
  
The kids nodded, and those that were already dressed ran for the door. Matt sighed, and for the first time noticed how cold his feet were. Realising he hadn't put on his shoes yet, he let Kat go and went back to the cupboard to grab them. His usual sneakers weren't there, but there was instead a new- looking shoebox. "Yo Bonnie! What's this?" he asked, carefully picking the box up.  
  
Bonnie stopped just in front of the doorway. "Ach, that's a wee present that Dylan an' I cooked up for ye'. Our way of sayin' sorry for the skedaddle we caused ye'"  
  
Matt opened the box and stared in awe at the contents. They were sneakers of some kind, black in the back, white at the front, with red tongues and a yellow and black circle around where you put each foot. However, the most interesting thing was a red lining on the bottom of each shoe, complete with yellow holes built into the sole and heel.  
  
"Whoa..." Matt breathed. "Bonnie, are these...?"  
  
Bonnie nodded, beaming. "Aye. Hover-boot skatie-type things. Saw 'em in ye' comic an' got creative," she explained, pointing to the comic Dylan had borrowed from Matt, now on his bedside dresser. "Thought ye' might like 'em."  
  
Matt nodded in wonder, pulling the sneakers on. "They're great! Just like Shadow's! I can't wait to test them out! Thanks so much!" They would probably come in useful, too. Help cut down on the amount of effort his legs would have to make, which was good, considering that one of them still hurt like buggery.  
  
"Matt?" Bonnie asked. "If ye' don't min' me askin'... well, I can understand why ye'd want Stan on the team... his Uncle being able to set us up wit' weapons n' all, but why Kyren? He's the new kid in town, and not really quite popular, either..."  
  
Matt nodded grimly. "I know. Can't be helped though. He's a child of God, and we'll need his religious help. Richardson's got himself an army of vampires."  
  
**********  
  
Dash and Butters met back at the front of the hospital about 50 minutes later. No other kids were in sight, apart from Pip, who was waiting patiently in the snow by himself. "Hello chaps!" he waved. "Here for the meeting then?"  
  
"Get lost, Pip," Dash said, rolling her eyes.  
  
"Righto," Pip replied, and obediently went about vacating the premises as quickly as possible.  
  
"W-w-what'd you d-do that for, D-dash?" Butters asked, scratching his head. "M-matt said to find a-as..."  
  
Dash stepped forward and put her hand to his mouth. "Butters, shut up for a minute," she ordered.  
  
"Mmmkay..." Butters answered, muffled by the wet glove covering his mouth.  
  
Dash looked into his eyes, a look of extreme seriousness on her face. "Butters... listen... you saved my life the other day. You didn't think about danger, or getting hurt yourself, you just jumped in and helped me out when I needed it the most. I just wanted to thank you. I'll remember what you did, for the rest of my life. And..." Dash hesitated, and looked down at the ground. "...and I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you before. I shouldn't have been."  
  
"Can I talk now?" Butters asked. Or he meant to. The noise that came out sounded more like, "Mmmfff rmmmf mpph?" Dash giggled a little and took her hand away. Butters gulped and looked into her eyes.  
  
"I-I'm sorry too. I d-did a terrible thing, and I've b-b-been beating m- myself up about it e-ever since it happened. I embarrassed you in f-front of the whole school, and I made y-you lose your job. I'm s-sorry." Butters stared down at his feet.  
  
Dash took Butters' hand and led them over to a nearby bench, where they both sat down. "Why'd you do it?" she asked quietly. "Be honest."  
  
Butters gulped and looked down at his feet. It took him a minute to gather his courage before he spoke. "I d-dunno. I was angry... and s-scared... I j- just had to know. I l-love you Dash - I didn't realise it at first, b-but I d-do... and I j-just had to know why you w-were pretending to be a b-boy."  
  
Butters and Dash sat there in silence, looking down at the snow beneath them. At last, Butters spoke again. "I w-wouldn't blame you if you n-never want to talk to me again, l-let alone forgive me..."  
  
He stopped in surprised when he felt Dash's hand on top of his own. Bringing his gaze up, he found himself looking straight into Dash's smiling face before she pecked him on the cheek and hugged him tight. Butters squeaked in surprise.  
  
"Oh Butters! Of course I forgive you!" she exclaimed.  
  
Butters blinked. "R-really? Even a-after all the b-bad stuff I've d-done?"  
  
Dash put her hand in his. "Butters, life's too short for us to be worrying about the mistakes we've made. Look, we both screwed up, but that's over. We might be about to go to our extremely painful deaths, and I don't want us to spend our last moments upset at each other. I love you too, you know."  
  
Butters' heart leapt. "Y-you do?!?" he cried.  
  
Dash nodded. "Listen, let's make a promise. If we make it through today, no matter what happens, we'll go on a date, okay?"  
  
Butters grinned. "O-okay!" Then he suddenly remembered something. "Oh yeah! D-dash... I w-went back to where I... I... I... almost lost you..." Butters closed his eyes and shuddered, remembering the horror of the scene. Dash squeezed his hand, urging him on. "W-well, I h-had to dig in the s-snow for a while, b-but I found this..." Butters pulled his hand out from behind his back, revealing a very black and beat up looking helmet. Dash gasped and accepted his gift gratefully. "Oh Butters..."  
  
Butters looked down at his feet again. "Y-yeah... it's p-pretty beat up... I g-guess it's no g-good any more..."  
  
Dash shook her head, grinning as she placed the helmet back in its usual position. "Nothing a little polish won't fix up. And dents and scratches are like war badges."  
  
Butters looked back up at her and smiled too. Maybe things would be okay after all...  
  
His thoughts were interrupted by the approach of kids coming their way. Dash looked up. "Looks like it's time to get this party started," she observed.  
  
**********  
  
"I thank all of you for showing up today," Matt said, facing the other kids who had shown. There wasn't much of a turnout. Stan, Kyle and Gloop were all there, but not Cartman. Kat and Amber were present, along with Dylan, Bonnie, Zed, and Dion, but not Tina. Apparently she was on the trail of Lily. Bobby hadn't come either; he was still uneasy with Matt, because of the fight they'd had. Butters and Dash had come though, and they had managed to bring Tweek and Kyren. The last member of the group had been somewhat apprehensive about coming - hearing that his life would be at risk didn't exactly excite Kyren. But still, he would certainly like to make some new friends around town now that he was here, and what friendship didn't come without a bit of risk these days? His time of teetering on the edge of death in hospital taught him that life is too short, and that you can either sit around and wait to die, or you can get out there and make something of your life. He had faith that God would protect him today, whatever this involved.  
  
"As I told my friends who gathered you here to inform you, none of you has to become involved if you don't want to. What I am about to suggest is both highly ludicrous, and highly dangerous. If anyone doesn't wish to join in, then feel free to leave within the next few minutes. No hard feelings," Matt assured them. Dylan took heart at this, and started to stroll away. Bonnie growled and grabbed him by the jacket, pulling him back. Seeing no- one leave, Matt added, "Did I mention this involves a conflict with vampires?"  
  
Although the mood of the crowd became a lot more uneasy and tense, only one person fled. Screaming something about the very big coffee he needed, Tweek made a hasty retreat. Matt rolled his eyes and did a quick head count. All in all, there were 13 of them there now, including himself. 15, when they freed Nath and Snowie, he reminded himself. "Thank you, those of you who have chosen to stay," Matt said gratefully.  
  
"You're welcome Maaaaatty!" Kat yelled from the crowd, grinning.  
  
Matt grinned back before becoming serious again. "Now with a bit of luck, we'll be able to save two innocent lives today, as well as killing a legion of the undead, and disposing of a foe that several of you are already familiar with," he explained, looking meaningfully at Kat, Amber, Stan, Kyle, and Dylan. "Peter Richardson has kidnapped Nathan Richardson and Snowie Vaunratten, and is holding them hostage as bait to lure me to his lair, where I am supposed to fall into his vampire friends' clutches. I however, have a different plan. We burst in, kill any vampires we come across, rescue my foster sibs, kick Richardson's ass, and call it a day. Sound good?"  
  
There was a general murmur of agreement within the group. Butters put up his hand. "B-b-but Matt sir, how are w-w-we going to k-kill them? I m-mean they're v-v-vampires! W-we'll be sitting d-ducks, by golly!" he stammered nervously.  
  
Matt frowned. "You don't know much about vampires, do you?" he asked.  
  
"I know th-they'll s-suck our blood..."  
  
Matt shook his head. "Not going to happen. Vampires are tough, I'll give you that, but they do have certain weaknesses. Yes, flesh wounds are fleeting; a vampire's immortal skin begins to close as soon as it is cleaved. However, vampires need fear those moves that impale or inflame. Holy water scorches them like acid, and vampires are devastated by sunlight's touch. All we need to do is take advantage of our enemies' weaknesses, and we'll be fine."  
  
"So how are we going to do that?" Kyle asked.  
  
"Amber has been good enough to check out the target location for us," Matt explained, nodding a thank you to Amber. "She says that there is a large skylight on the roof of Carl's warehouse, that covers almost the entire place. It has been covered with a large black tarp, so that it doesn't let the sunlight in. Whilst Bonnie and Dylan make their way onto the roof to get rid of it, the rest of us will cover them by causing a distraction. In other words, we burst in and start killing vampires. These bozos should be mainly nocturnal, so we'll get a big advantage by attacking them during the day. First chance we get, we free the hostages and get the hell out of there. And we torch the building when we're out, as a precaution. Sorry Dash," he added, giving her a sympathetic smile. Dash sighed and nodded.  
  
Matt turned to Stan then. "Stan, we need to be well armed before we go in there today. Can you set us up?" he asked.  
  
Stan nodded confidently. "No problem dude, I'll take care of it," he said.  
  
Matt nodded and turned to the newest kid on the block. "Kyren, I'll need your help too," he smiled.  
  
"Mine?!?" Kyren asked, incredulously. How could Matt need his help? He'd only met him about a week ago, and nowadays they just said hi in passing! They knew next to nothing about each other! But Matt nodded at him, so he gulped and adjusted his glasses. "Okay, what do you want me to do?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound as nervous as he felt.  
  
**********  
  
Inside Carl's warehouse, the vampires were getting restless. It had been almost three days since they'd had their last drink of blood, and it was becoming quite a large irritant to them.  
  
"I still say that Richardson is full of it. The kid's not going to show!"  
  
"He will show, and we will be treated to perhaps the most amazing blood ever."  
  
"Give me a break. How can one kid be that good? Besides, he's not coming."  
  
"Yeah. I say we drink Richardson and the hostages."  
  
"And then we smoke crack!" slurred a particularly doped up vampire.  
  
"Yes... crack..."  
  
"We stick to our original plan. Have a little patience, will you?"  
  
"Hey, hey, hey! Patients are for hospitals! I'm a hungry vampire, and that makes me itchy!"  
  
"Nowhere near as itchy as Fred. Look, he's still scratching himself."  
  
"Shuddup!"  
  
"Mmm... hospitals... blood drives..."  
  
"Stop it! You're making me hungrier!"  
  
"Pizza delivery!"  
  
The vampires looked at each other in surprise. The last voice had come from outside the main warehouse door, accompanied by a loud knock. One particularly hungry vampire, the one called Fred, jumped up from scratching himself and ran over to hit the door retract button, temporarily forgetting that vampires don't actually eat pizza... or anything, for that matter.  
  
"Fred, stop!" one tried to warn him, but all too late. The door sped upwards, sunlight poured into the room, and a hapless Fred found himself caught in the fatal beam before exploding into flame. He screamed and ran around in a panic, setting another two much slower vampires alight too. All three very quickly disintegrated as just under a dozen kids stepped into the warehouse, making sure to stay within the patch of sunlight. "You ordered one with the lot, right?" Matt grinned, whirling a stake confidently in his hand.  
  
"Don't be stupid dude," Kyle scolded him, aiming his crossbow. "These guys are obviously meatlovers!"  
  
Pulling the trigger, he shot an arrow across the room, sending it straight into the heart of the doped up vampire, who uttered a typical crackhead, "Whoaaa..." before becoming a pile of dust on the floor.  
  
Several vampires immediately lunged at the kids, but most of them stopped when they saw they were still standing in the sunlight. One however, kept running towards them. Matt nudged Kyren, who nervously stopped to the front of the group and watched frozen as the undead creature ran towards him. At the last possible second, Kyren came back to his senses and seized the cross he always carried with him, holding it in front of him. He would later say that God came to him in his moment of need. The vampire leapt at him, seeing the cross an entire second too late. Kyren ended up actually smacking the beast in the face with his cross. Clutching his face in agony, the demon fell to the sunlit ground, caught on fire, and ceased to be.  
  
The other vampires by now had gotten over their initial shock and were starting to get into an attack mode. One very clever one tossed a rock at the door release controls, which instantly sent the door crashing back down, cutting off the sunlight in the room. Oblivious to the charging danger, Kyren looked up at Matt excitedly. "I got him!" he whispered, mainly to himself. Then, louder and more enthusiastically, "I got him!"  
  
"Great, Kyren! Don't get cocky!" Matt yelled, leaping forward and clapping his heels together. The shoes on his feet instantly responded; small jets of flame shot out of the holes in the soles as Matt skated forward, hovering two or three centimetres above the ground. The other kids responded by charging too, brandishing various weapons and yelling cries that were 95% fatigue, fear, and frustration; 5% hostility. Dash and Butters started tossing water balloons filled with holy water, which hit some very unhappy vampires. They responded by screaming in pain and adding to the gradually growing dust pile in the room.  
  
(Butters wasn't doing quite as well as Dash was, unfortunately. When the two groups had charged forward at each other, Butters had run forward eagerly, obviously ready to kick some ass. Three seconds later, he was on the ground, getting trampled on by anyone who happened to be fighting nearby. Dash saw his predicament, but there wasn't really much she could do at the time. She was too busy bombing.)  
  
Amber wielded a ridiculously large battle axe, and was getting great enjoyment from plunging the blade into vampires' hearts or necks. Stan and Gloop were both toting super soakers filled with holy water, and Kyle and Dion handled the crossbows, Kyle a slightly better shot than Dion due to his small amount of experience he had in the field of hunting. Zed and Kyren took to chasing some of the weedier looking vampires around the warehouse, taunting them with their crosses and driving them into the range of the others' weapons, if not killing them themselves. "Yeah! You don't like that, do you demon creature?" Kyren growled, driving one back. "God loves me, and hates you, and there's nothing you can do about it!" At this point, the vampire, who was tacky enough to be wearing a long black cloak, tripped up on the end of it whilst backing up. Kyren took advantage of this by leaping forward and plunging a stake into his heart. The vampire gasped and turned to dust. "Yeah! Take that!" Kyren cheered.  
  
"See you in Hell, bitch!" Zed added as he dusted the one he was currently stalking.  
  
"Please help!" came the muffled call from Butters, still unable to remove himself from the floor.  
  
Matt was using a variety of techniques to overcome his opponents. Some he staked, some he knocked into the sunlight, some he found great amusement in kicking, which, due to his sneakers shooting out propelling flame, set them alight. He temporarily reconsidered the wisdom of that particular attack when a water bomb splattered one of the flaming vampires in the face. Matt groaned and looked accusingly at Dash. The girl shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry, habit!" she grinned, then hurled another balloon at a vampire foolish enough to try and get to the still floor-bound Butters.  
  
Matt just grinned and shook his head, then searched about the room for Kat. He was a bit surprised to see her doing quite well, actually. Kat had scored the fourth vamp killing of the group, right after the door slammed shut behind them all. She had spun, twirled and cartwheeled all over the room before stopping in front of a vampire and thrusting her arm forward, slamming her snorkel into the demon's chest. A very surprised vampire turned to dust. Kat hadn't stopped to admire her handiwork, but instead vaulted away again, and had thus succeeded in dusting five of the enemy. After slaying a sixth, she looked around for Matt, then waved happily when she saw him saw him skate over. Matt grinned and waved too. He had never seen her so pumped! She was sweating a bit from all her bouncing around the room, but she was obviously enjoying herself. At the same time, they both saw a vampire coming at them from behind the other, and lost their happy faces. "Behind you!" they both yelled, and linking hands, both jumped forward in their own directions, planting a foot into each of the offending demons. Matt's victim instantly ignited and fell lightly to the floor as dust, followed shortly by the one who had attempted to attack Kat, his unbeating heart pierced by her snorkel for his troubles.  
  
Matt slapped his girlfriend five before his eyes fell on a small door on the other side of the room. Frowning, his thoughts turned back to his reasons for entering this place. That must be where Nath and Snowie were being held! "Hold the fort here, guys!" he called to his comrades as he concentrated on the Force. This power, along with the added assistance of his hover-boots, allowed him to rise into the air and fly over the battle. As he went though, he happened to notice that the majority of the vampires were on the side of the room to his left, while most of his friends were to his right. He swept his hand to the left and then headed for the door as an invisible pulse-wave threw everyone in its path backwards, sprawling to the ground. Whilst most of the kids cheered at this and charged again, Butters wailed with dismay. He had only just gotten to his feet when he'd been knocked over again!  
  
As he flew, Matt took a moment to mope about what a nice complement his emerald-induced powers would make at the current time. The Chaos Control ability would certainly be handy, as would Chaos Spear, an attack where he could summon lightning bolts out of thin (and even cloudless) air. He took a moment to smile at the thought of how quickly and easily he could have wiped out this platoon of vampires. Oh well. He was managing to hold his own rather well.  
  
**********  
  
If Dylan had been previous in the prior scene, he probably would have commented on several things that just didn't seem right within it. He probably would have chosen to ignore Matt's latest act of knocking most of the people... alight, vampires... over with a simple hand motion. He didn't really believe in hokey religions like the one Matt was tuned to - he'd been all over this country and had seen a lot of weird stuff, but not even the feats he had seen Matt perform could make him believe in one all- powerful Force. (This was mainly because he chose to ignore such things.) He would have however noted that Matt and Kat, in their brief team effort, were making a reference to the movie Rush Hour, and scolded them as this had already been done in the previous season's final episode. He also would have told Kat that vampires, although not actually real, could not be killed by getting stabbed with a snorkel. Wood would work, as would silver, but certainly not plastic.  
  
For these reasons alone, it is perhaps a lucky thing that he was not in the previous scene. Whilst chaos reigned supreme down inside the warehouse, he and Bonnie had been climbing to the roof by a conveniently placed ladder. Upon reaching the top, they stopped for a few seconds to catch their breath, then split up and each went to opposite corners of the skylight, grasping an edge of the black tarp covering it.  
  
"Ready?" Dylan yelled.  
  
"Aye!" Bonnie yelled back. "One, two three!"  
  
Both kids yanked, and the tarp flew off, catching a drift and sailing away into the air as Bonnie and Dylan released their grip. Unfortunately, the inside of the warehouse remained lit only by artificial light. Dylan frowned as he saw that the skylight had been spray painted black almost completely. Only the odd speck or two of light could get through that! "What now?" he yelled at Bonnie, who was now running from her end of the roof to his.  
  
"We'll have to blow it!" Bonnie gasped, leaning over to catch her breath again.  
  
Dylan frowned. He still wasn't comfortable with the idea that he was carrying several plastic explosives on his back. "Matt told us we were supposed to place them around the warehouse..." he started.  
  
Bonnie frowned sternly at him. "He also told us to get the sunlight in!" she yelled, exasperated.  
  
Dylan sighed. "Alright. What do we do?"  
  
"You'll haveta walk across those beams there an' place a few of the explosives along them. That'll do it."  
  
Dylan opened his mouth to ask why she couldn't do that, but looking at the expression on her face, he thought the better of it and instead looked over at the beams. They didn't look very strong.  
  
"Those things better support me," he grumbled, carefully making his way forward onto the nearest one.  
  
**********  
  
Matt thought that it would have been gratitude that met him when he burst into the room holding his imprisoned foster siblings.  
  
"WHAT THE FUCK TOOK YOU SO LONG?!?"  
  
Obviously, he was very wrong.  
  
Matt grunted as he ran forward, removing his machette from his jacket pocket. "Hold still," he ordered both of them as he carefully sliced through the ropes that bound them, and helped Nath into his wheelchair. The three of them exchanged a relieved hug, and then headed for the door, Matt passing each of them a stake. He only had two, but his ridiculously large knife would be just as fine a weapon for him.  
  
"We've been here for four days!" Nath complained. "Where the hell were you?!?"  
  
Matt murmured in annoyance. "Listen Nath, a rescuer comes when he can, okay? You gotta learn to roll with the punches."  
  
"Forget roll with the punches, let's just roll!" Snowie exclaimed, eager to leave this place.  
  
"Now's their something I can d..." Nath started as an adult-sized figure leapt into the room. For once, Nath was the first to react. He thrust his arm forward and hurled his stake, which landed right in the chest of Peter Richardson. The man gasped in pain and surprise, then fell backwards to the floor, unmoving.  
  
Matt would have commented on this, but instead his attention was drawn to the tinkle of broken glass as a screaming Dylan fell through the blacked out skylight, causing another sunbeam to appear and ignite another hapless vampire. Unbelievably fast, Matt skated forward through the door, into the main area, and grabbed Dylan by the leg as he plummeted. Feeling himself stop falling, Dylan opened his eyes.  
  
His nose was an inch from the ground.  
  
Smiling, Matt turned Dylan upright and placed him on the ground. The spectacled boy proceeded to brush himself off, then glare at Matt and yell, "What'd you do that for?!?"  
  
"You're welcome," Matt said, rolling his eyes.  
  
**********  
  
Bonnie sighed in frustration, but relief, as she saw Matt rescue Dylan from almost certain death. Well, she hadn't really wanted to test how good her curveball was, but one must adapt to the circumstances at hand. It was a good thing Dylan had made her carry some of the explosives too. Such a gentleman. Lighting one of the plastic explosives, she tossed it towards the centre of the skylight as gently as she could.  
  
**********  
  
A loud explosion, showering glass, and more sunlight pouring in caught everyone's attention. "What's going on?" Matt yelled, shielding his head with his arms.  
  
"We had to blow the skylight - it's been covered in spray paint!" Dylan yelled back.  
  
Matt didn't like the sound of that. Looking upwards, he saw that his gut was right. One of the main support beams holding the roof up was damaged, and straining under the pressure. "That's not going to hold out much longer..." he muttered, looking to the door. Nath was way ahead of him, already pounding his fist into the door release button, somewhat harpered by the fact that one extremely ecstatic Amber had attached herself to his waist. But the large steel door remained in place, damaged by the rock earlier thrown at it.  
  
"How are we going to get out, Matty?" Kat asked, on the brink of panic.  
  
Matt grit his teeth. He couldn't see any other way out, apart from one that was currently unavailable to him. "If only I had my..." He paused as a sudden green light flashed in his jacket, and he felt something heavy drop into his pocket. "...my Chaos Emerald! Thank you, Tina!" he grinned. "Okay everyone, quick! Grab hold of me! A finger is enough..."  
  
All the kids in the room ran over to him as quickly as they could, and made contact with him. Matt nodded as he felt arms grabbing his hair, arms, feet, chest... "Kat, I hope that's you down there..." he muttered. A familiar giggle put his concerns at rest, and he instead concentrated on the evacuation. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the glowing green gemstone he had become so used to. "Chaos control!" he ordered the jewel, which obediently glowed brighter before enveloping all 12 kids with a green light. Not even a second later, they were gone. So they weren't there to see the only surviving vampire crawl over to Richardson, who was barely clinging onto life, and lunge at his neck.  
  
**********  
  
As he stood beside Kat, Nath and Amber in the South Park cemetery that evening, Matt thought about the events that had occurred that day. After successfully teleporting everyone to safety, he'd also had to go back and pluck Bonnie from the roof of the warehouse before it collapsed. After the dust had settled, the four of them had gone through the rubble and debris, in search of Richardson. A lone vampire had emerged and instantly burned to death, exposed to the sunlight. Not long after, they had found the man's corpse, and saw the tell-tale puncture wounds in his neck. That was why they were here now.  
  
"I still don't understand why the Chaos Emerald overloaded you with power, Matt," Nath said, scratching his head in confusion.  
  
Matt shrugged. "Well, my theory is that it knew I needed help, what with holding the house up and everything. I dunno. Maybe it was because that was the first time I was able to truly use its power, and understood how it worked. When the house collapsed on top of us..."  
  
At this point Kat shuddered, and cuddled up closer to Matt. Matt smiled and held her tight, running a hand through her hair. "When that happened," he continued, "it was like I was desperate to do whatever it took to get out of there alive. For some reason, the emerald flowed its power into me, only instead of letting me just tap into it, made me an actual source of power. Or something." Matt sighed. "At any rate, I didn't lose the plot until Dylan and Bonnie tried to help out. Then I went off the deep end." Matt shook his head. He would have to make sure that he made up for the damage he had done.  
  
"I just hope it doesn't happen again," Nath murmured. "I don't think Tina would hold back on you another time."  
  
Matt agreed with that one. Sooner or later, he'd have to have a private talk with Tina, to thank her for returning his precious stone, and to try and make amends for his previous actions. It wasn't exactly a conversation he looked forward to. One thing he'd learned very quickly about Tina was not to fuck with her.  
  
The four kids stared down at the freshly disturbed earth before them. Behind it stood a simple tombstone, which only had the words "Peter Richardson" engraved in it, along with the date of his death. The kids had been gathered there for some time now. Nath interrupted the silence again. "Matt, do we really need to be here?"  
  
"Can never be too careful, Nath," Matt murmured. "If that vampire made him drink his blood..." As if to prove his point, an arm suddenly clawed its way up through the soft earth in front of them. All four kids gasped and jumped back as Peter Richardson, now with the evil face and pointed fangs of a vampire, struggled to break free of his confines. Before he could make a complete escape from the ground, Matt handed Nath a stake. The boy rolled forward emotionlessly and plunged the weapon into the heart of what had once been his father. The creature turned to dust instantly, and the kids' hearts all slowed down from their frantic beating. They stood (or sat, in Amber and Nath's case) in silence for several minutes, Kat in Matt's arms, Amber in Nath's lap, before Matt at last proclaimed, "It's over." The other 3 nodded in agreement as the group turned away, heading for the exit. Their tormenter would never bother them again.  
  
THE END?  
  
Not quite. In case you were wondering, Terrence, Bill, and Fossey are still imprisoned in the school playground. They will no doubt be there for quite some time, seeing as the kids have no reason to head in to school for the time being. The phrase, "What goes around, comes around," comes to this author's mind.  
  
THE END 


End file.
